Posted on 03/13/2005 5:53:53 PM PST by CHARLITE
In a stunning about-face, the New York Times reported Sunday that when the U.S. attacked Iraq in March 2003, Saddam Hussein possessed "stockpiles of monitored chemicals and materials," as well as sophisticated equipment to manufacture nuclear and biological weapons, which was removed to "a neighboring state" before the U.S. could secure the weapons sites.
The U.N.'s Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission [UNMOVIC] "has filed regular reports to the Security Council since last May," the paper said, "about the dismantlement of important weapons installations and the export of dangerous materials to foreign states."
"Officials of the commission and the [International] Atomic Energy Agency have repeatedly called on the Iraqi government to report on what it knows of the fate of the thousands of pieces of monitored equipment and stockpiles of monitored chemicals and materials." Last fall, IAEA director Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei confirmed that "nuclear-related materials" had gone missing from monitored sites, calling on Iraqi officials to start the process of accounting for the missing stockpiles still ostensibly under the agency's supervision.
Quoting Sami al-Araji, Iraq's deputy minister of industry since the 1980s, the Times said:
"It appeared that a highly organized operation had pinpointed specific plants in search of valuable equipment, some of which could be used for both military and civilian applications, and carted the machinery away."
Calling the operation "sophisticated," Dr. Araji said the removal effort featured "cranes and the lorries, and they depleted the whole sites," adding, "They knew what they were doing."
The top Iraqi defense official said equipment capable of making parts for missiles as well as chemical, biological and nuclear arms was missing from 8 or 10 sites that were the heart of Iraq's WMD program.
Dr. Araji said that if the equipment had left the country, its most likely destination was a neighboring state.
The United Nations, worried that the nuclear material and equipment could be used in clandestine bomb production, has been hunting for it throughout the Middle East, largely unsuccessfully, the Times said.
"the stuff is just about to turn up"
Well .. if Syria finally leaves Lebanon - the Bakaa Valley will be open for us to look - I presume we will be allowed in there. Maybe the NYT figured that out too and decided they better get with the program before it gets revealed and they are left with more egg on their face.
guessing that some UN folks tipped them that something is coming down the pipe. maybe even monday.
Exactly right -
Check this link out for some interesting reading. http://www.worldthreats.com/middle_east/Syria.htm
All of this would explain why syria is pulling back to the bekka to wait and see what happens. Still far to early to know if syria will be shoved out of all of Lebanon.
Not too long after Tom Moorer died, General Gordon Sumner and I submitted an article pointing out this obvious fact to Tony Blankley at the Wash. Times. After an initial positive reaction from one of his assistants, we heard no more. Apparently, there was no interest in this obvious truth. The conservative establishment that has grown up is in some ways as impervious to truth as the liberal establishment.
Perhaps I should have put the tag of "{/sarcasm}" after my comments for those of you who take everything very literally.
It also makes Syria's pullout of Lebanon sort of interesting.
What, in fact, did Syria do of late: pulled back to the Bekaa Valley, then withdrew into Syria.
Why stop in the Bekaa Valley?
It's hard to loot something like this unless you have the equipment to trasport it. On top of that, the 'metal shop' that has one of these can't exactly advertise the fact in the yellow pages.
Thanks for the link
No they don't. Low tolerances generally make for more expensive machining and thus more expensive parts. You can get back some of that by a reduction of "fitting" during assembly and make make the basic design easier. OTOH, most Soviet military equipment was designed to use high tolerance parts, and to function with very loose fitting parts.
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